Strong Baby

2009-12-14T20:54:00.003-05:00

Both Isabelle and Jason are growing up so quickly. Jason is learning new words and to put words together every day from his sister. The last two days he has spent a lot of time saying "Thank you Mommy" or "Thank you Daddy"... He also loves to say "My Ball", "My Teddy Bear"...

2009-08-12T20:53:00.003-04:00

Jason is definitely a little toddler now.

Isabelle has gotten a summer haircut and has been having a great summer.

We've been to the CN Tower, Toronto Metro Zoo, African Lion Safari and Long Point beach in the last month and Isabelle has had a blast everywhere we've gone.

We found out when eating at a restaurant that Jason LOVES spaghetti - he ate a full bowl of an up to 12 year old child menu spaghetti serving plus an added order of meatballs (with a little bit dropped on the floor)...

2009-07-02T12:55:00.002-04:00

What's not to love about this face?

Jason is changing before our eyes - from a baby to an independent little man walking, climbing, eating with a spoon, and wanting to do everything "big people" do.

Isabelle is great with her little brother, but also enjoys time without him "bugging her" to colour or read. She is very excited about the warm weather so she can go to splash pads, on hikes with her daddy and on our summer vacations.

Time flies...

2009-05-05T20:53:00.004-04:00

Jason is now 14 months old and becoming a walking toddler trying to mimic some words like "ball" and "bell" (for his sister's name) and wanting desperately to eat everything that his sister and mom are eating... yesterday, he even took a whole cob of corn and happily attacked it with his six teeth.

Isabelle is 4 now and varies between a "princess" one moment to a future firefighter the next.

Christmas

2009-01-10T21:29:00.002-05:00

We had a great Christmas this year. Here is Isabelle showing off one of her presents.

2009-01-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

Isabelle loves to pull people around in a sled. With her little brother, she finally has someone to pull around at our house when we get the winter weather we've seen so many times already this year.

2009-01-10T14:21:00.002-05:00

Coming to get you! Oh look, Isabelle!

2009-01-10T14:13:00.003-05:00

Watch Jason crawl! Crawl, crawl, by the wall.

2009-01-10T14:07:00.004-05:00

Jason has just started crawling forwards in the traditional manner moving both legs separately after spending several weeks pushing himself backwards with his belly on the ground. He also got one tooth just before Christmas and now has three teeth (all on the top). He also loves to push himself forward on a small car chasing his sister.

2008-11-02T20:54:00.003-05:00

Hallowe'en went really well this year. Isabelle had a great time and said "trick or treat" and "thank you" at every house. She exchanged her candy for lots of treats except for some stickers from an allergy-friendly neighbour. (Her allergy testing in September confirmed that she is still allergic to eggs and dairY). Isabelle went as a mermaid/princess while her little brother was "Superman"! Jason continues to struggle with another set of ear infections and difficulty eating and drinking (more so even this week than before). He is still a cheerful little fellow most of the time and giggles when his sister plays with him - a cute sight indeed!

2008-08-26T21:42:00.003-04:00

Jason is sitting up on his own now. He loves his big sister. He loves to watch her jump and laughs and giggles when she pays attention to him. Fortunately, the feeling is mutal and Isabelle loves to play with her little brother and also help out taking care of him (feeding him and bathing him and changing his "yucky" diapers) when she isn't taking care of "her" baby "Amy" (a doll). Isabelle has decided that she is going to have two babies in her tummy when she gets as big as her mummy - Diane and James.

2008-06-19T20:54:00.003-04:00

As Isabelle says "poor little guy" has a bad ear infection this week. Fortunately, antibiotics seem to be helping and he no longer seems to be in any pain. He was a hefty 20lbs 11oz when we took him in this week to find out about the ear infection. Here are photos of his smile and his big sister "holding" him on the couch as she loves to do.

Almost three months...

2008-05-28T15:02:00.003-04:00

Our heavyweight champion is growing well... He was over 14 lbs at one month and was 17lbs 10oz at two months - off the charts. He has outgrown the infant car seat before he is three months old.

His sister still loves him to death, fortunately not "to death" literally although he certainly takes some pretty hard hits from time to time when she plays with him or hugs him (at 40lbs herself, a full hug from her is a bit much for him).

He is very interactive and getting quite strong with his head and torso. He is a good sleeper at night by constrast to his sister at this age - some nights he goes 7 hours in one stretch and fairly consistently does one 5 hour stretch.

Life with two young ones is busy, but wonderful!

New Baby Strong!

2008-03-14T13:21:00.002-04:00

Isabelle and her parents very happily welcomed our new baby Jason into the world on leap year day - February 29, 2008. Poor guy won't have many birthdays, but he certainly is well-loved already. Isabelle loves to help with diaper changes and gives him lots of hugs and kisses throughout the day. Jason has been quite healthy and a big fan of eating since his first feed a couple of minutes after his birth.

Jason was a hefty 11 lbs 8.8 oz and 21.5 inches at birth. It was a good labour and delivery despite being induced and a dicey minute when his shoulders wouldn't come out - mom had a doula and with her support and the loving support of the best husband and daddy she could have ever found, she felt better afterwards than after Isabelle's birth.

Here's a photo of our little guy. More to come on this busy new development for our family as the months pass...

2007-12-30T20:20:00.000-05:00

Isabelle enjoyed Christmas - especially visiting with her family (cousin, aunt, uncles and grandparents) and getting two baby dolls (and has now given up trying to convince her mommy that she should have two not one baby).

New Strong Baby

2007-12-20T21:24:00.000-05:00

Isabelle is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her little brother or sister.

She visited with Santa Claus at daycare this week. She calls him "ho ho ho" (her speech is still a bit behind - hopefully speech therapy starting in the new year will bring speedier improvements to add to the improvements we've seen with our efforts after her speech therapy appointments). She has taken to telling people she meets that HER baby is in HER mommy's tum (ie. tummy). Any clothes that are too small for her, she announces now are for the baby and she takes them into the baby's room to put in the baby's crib. She has very smoothly moved from her crib to a "big girl's" double bed.

Lots of changes in a busy time, but nothing compared to our house at the end of February when the next child arrives!

More photos to come soon (our computer died and we haven't retrieved the data on the old computer yet).

Hallowe'en

2007-11-01T15:32:00.000-04:00

Isabelle took a while to agree to get into her costume, but eventually got into the spirit of things...

Watering Flowers

2007-06-07T21:26:00.001-04:00

Isabelle loves to water flowers and wash cars... or, it may be that she loves to get wet...

Spring 2007

2007-06-07T21:18:00.000-04:00

Isabelle continues to be a wonderful daughter. She loves being outside. She has just started to fly kites. A visit to the allergist today has told us that she is still allergic to dairy and milk, so we have another year of carrying epi-pens, etc...

Isabelle's 2nd Birthday

2007-04-26T21:24:00.000-04:00

Isabelle had a great second birthday. She had a pizza dinner (no cheese, of course as she still has her allergies) and a dairy-free, egg-free cake made by her grandma.
She was spoiled with lots of presents and loved all of the attention!

More outside time!

2007-04-08T23:31:00.000-04:00

On one of our trips to the park at the end of March we found out that Isabelle loves to swing almost as high as she can go now! Hopefully the weather will improve again and we can go outside again (we had snow everyday over Easter weekend with 3 inches on the ground at times) as she loves to be outside and learned to pedal her tricycle last week!

Spring was coming...

2007-04-08T23:30:00.000-04:00

Isabelle's daddy got her this four wheeled car and she loves it!

Outside!

2007-04-08T22:41:00.000-04:00

Isabelle really enjoyed getting outside when the weather warmed up a bit at the end of March.

2007-04-04T21:22:00.000-04:00

Isabelle is growing taller and more active every day.

She just started to pedal her tricycle. She takes her clothes on and off by herself. She loves to spend time outside.

She still has a wonderful smile and we love to hear her talk one of her favourite things to talk about is "my mama, my dada"...

February 2007

2007-02-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

Isabelle is a happy wonderful girl even when she (and her parents) are suffering from nasty colds.

Isabelle in January 2007

2007-01-23T21:04:00.000-05:00

Isabelle's daddy got her a wonderful new riding toy (her car is now too small for her). She loves her speed on it, the ability to steer and the bell!

Isabelle in January 2007

2007-01-23T20:58:00.000-05:00

Isabelle loves the kitchen she got from her grandparents for Christmas! She even borrow things from our real kitchen to use in her make-believe play.

2007-01-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

Isabelle figured out pretty quickly how to open presents on Christmas day. This is first thing morning - opening her stocking!

2007-01-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

Isabelle got a tent for Christmas from Santa Claus and she loves it!

2007-01-03T21:40:00.000-05:00

Isabelle got a wonderful cute new "strawberry" jacket, hat and mitts for Christmas from her grandparents! She loves them!

2006-12-17T21:09:00.000-05:00

This weekend she said "no" for the first time and has started to say "wow" and "uh oh" when things fall. She loves to spin around in circles and pretty much any activity that involves running and moving around at speed. She had lots of playmates this weekend and did really well at hugging everyone goodbye and waving to them!

2006-12-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

Isabelle still loves watching ducks on warmer days like this weekend. She now only wants to see them "at a distance" as she seems to be afraid of all animals close up right now.

2006-12-13T21:14:00.000-05:00

Isabelle is so much fun these days. She laughs at the smallest things. She loves to run around. She loves to use her crayons. She "tells" us where she wants to go by grabbing our fingers and pulling us to where she wants to go or what she wants us to do next. She loves to "pay" in stores with our credit cards. She loves to show that she is a "big girl" by carrying shopping bags, her lunch bag, or almost anything else even if it is larger than her. She has learned the sign language for "more" from daycare. She eats amazing amounts one day (ex. four sausages in 5 minutes) or very little the next day. We could go on forever.

2006-12-13T21:09:00.000-05:00

Isabelle loves to read. Especially when it involves either of her two favourite animals - ducks and frogs!

2006-10-31T21:07:00.000-05:00

This is Isabelle's second Hallowe'en outfit. She refused the unicorn (ie. outfit #1). Fortunately, she has a wonderful devoted daddy who came to the rescue and bought her outfit #2. She was happy to put the ladybug outfit on after I offered to take her photo (and she put on mommy's shoes to wear for the photo). Happy Hallowe'en!

2006-10-30T20:30:00.000-05:00

She had a great Thanksgiving weekend - it was a warm weekend and probably the last one we could spend outside without a coat on until springtime now...

2006-10-30T20:28:00.000-05:00

This is a classic "Isabelle grin"!

2006-10-07T21:31:00.000-04:00

In the backyard today - just having a blast.

2006-10-07T21:29:00.000-04:00

Isabelle runs a lot now - especially to chase geese or reach a "goal" (ex. she loves ducks), or when she is being "chased" by mommy or daddy (probably her favourite game). She is a really fast walker and goes as fast as her mom. She will walk a long distance and recently participated in a walk-a-thon at her daycare centre and raised money for cancer treatment for children.

2006-10-07T21:27:00.000-04:00

Isabelle LOVES being chased by Daddy (aka the "tickle monster").

2006-10-07T21:25:00.000-04:00

As of Labour Day, we stopped feeding Isabelle and have left her to her own devices. It was a bit stressful as she ate a bit the first day, but nothing on day two. It has been a messy process, but she has improved over time. She primarily eats foods that she can pick up in her hands - fruits, homemade bread by daddy, some veggies, and little bits of meat. As you can see from this photo, she also likes to break apart some of her foods (we tried to give her a cookie and she didn't eat it, but split it apart into lots of little bits).

Vacation

2006-08-22T15:58:00.000-04:00

Isabelle went on vacation with her parents last week. She went to the Toronto Zoo, the Peterborough Zoo and her grandparents' cottage northeast of Peterborough. She had a wonderful time!

2006-08-06T20:46:00.000-04:00

Isabelle loves balls no matter whether it is on dry land or in water!

2006-08-06T20:43:00.000-04:00

Isabelle enjoyed a local wading pool with us yesterday!

2006-07-28T21:22:00.000-04:00

We saw an allergist in early June and got a diagnosis that she has a dairy allergy and likely egg allergy. Fortunately, she is not allergic to soy, so we have started to try to convince her to drink soy milk.

The allergist was absolutely wonderful and spent a long time with us explaining how to deal with her allergies including to teach us how to use an Epipen, just in case she has an anaphylactic response and to reassure us that most of her reactions are not likely related to her dairy or egg allergy and there is no specific allergy that we should have figured out from those frequent minor reactions. The appointment has freed her mommy from a lot of anxiety. We will have a follow-up in a year, but until then have to keep Isabelle away from ALL dairy (including any ingredients in foods that contain the dairy proteins - casien and whey which includes a lot of foods).

Isabelle had her 15 month well-baby in July and she hasn't gained any weight. She is quite tall for her age - 33.5 inches and a good size head - 46.5 cm. She tolerated the two shots (prevnar and chicken pox vaccine) extremely well (although, of course, cried at first) even though she had a bad cold. No fever or any problems other than typical cold and teething symptoms this past week.

Isabelle has 12 teeth - she has two full molars through on one side and about 1/3 of her molars through on the other side. She is missing the teeth between the middle teeth and the molars and with a gap between her middle top teeth it is quite the interesting look.

She is still VERY active. Walking, running, climbing, going up stairs, etc... She can climb up and get down off chairs and couches by herself. She loves to throw and catch balls and carry "purses". She always prefers to be independent.

She still has the world's best smile - from her mouth to her eyes and crunched up face in between! We wish everyone could be as happy as she seems to be!

2006-07-28T21:10:00.000-04:00

We have a swing and slide set inside now that Isabelle loves!

2006-07-28T21:07:00.000-04:00

Isabelle loves to "pose" for the camera now.

2006-07-11T20:23:00.000-04:00

We love her in pink (ps. she put her hat on herself)...

2006-07-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

She loves to wave goodbye and peek her head around doors before she closes them.

2006-06-29T21:56:00.000-04:00

Making faces at the camera!

2006-06-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

Showing off her new hat!

2006-06-29T21:53:00.000-04:00

Happy on Father's Day!

2006-06-06T21:01:00.000-04:00

She loves the outdoors! We walk in the backyard (or at least around the patio chairs) every day now.

2006-06-06T20:56:00.000-04:00

Her favourite new activity is to climb on what used to be daddy's armchair and "read" books.

2006-05-23T20:44:00.000-04:00

She is becoming such the toddler instead of our little newborn - walking, clapping, climbing, going up and down stairs... She is losing her baby chub and gaining more and more expression in her face!

2006-05-23T20:42:00.000-04:00

She was very cute this weekend wearing one of mommy's mother's day presents!

2006-05-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

She loves to walk on our back deck... if only it had railings...

2006-05-20T21:13:00.000-04:00

Isabelle loves walking outside and showing off another of her new skills - clapping!

2006-05-15T20:49:00.000-04:00

She is walking and running constantly now!

2006-04-29T20:25:00.000-04:00

She LOVES to walk! She is walking up a storm now. In the last week she has gone from four or five tentative steps and "falling into" our arms at the end of the steps to walking around the house, across rooms, carrying balls while walking and being able to turn around and go another direction. She "led" other children at daycare walking out to a playyard this week!

2006-04-29T20:24:00.000-04:00

Isabelle got her first pair of walking shoes today!

2006-04-23T20:54:00.000-04:00

Still loving her new chair!

2006-04-23T20:53:00.000-04:00

A close up!

2006-04-22T20:41:00.000-04:00

Our little girl is growing up - she was walking so much today her hair was plastered to her head with sweat from the "workout"!

2006-04-22T20:35:00.000-04:00

Isabelle LOVES sitting in chairs, so we got her a patio chair today. We had a wonderful happy day full of lots of play time!

2006-04-17T09:02:00.000-04:00

Her first birthday!

2006-04-15T15:03:00.000-04:00

Isabelle went for a different type of car ride today and just had a blast! She's a happy birthday girl this weekend!

2006-04-09T21:04:00.000-04:00

She loves to play!

2006-04-09T21:02:00.000-04:00

She's a happy happy girl when she's active! We're running so much to keep up with her that her mommy has finally shed almost all of her pregnancy pounds (and Isabelle has stopped putting on weight)!

2006-04-09T21:01:00.000-04:00

Isabelle just loves standing and walking with her walking toys!

Walking on her own!

2006-04-09T14:54:00.000-04:00

Isabelle has stood and walked on her own several times for 3 steps, but is not off and running yet.

She has 6 teeth (4 bottom, 2 top) and this weekend seems to be starting on her 7th.

She understands a lot of words now and as of this week, she will wave her arm in response to "wave Isabelle" (for the last weeks she would only raise her arm up and hold it still in mid air). She is also starting to clap when you say clap or clap our hands (except that she uses one hand against her thigh instead of two hands to clap).

Our little girl is growing up so quickly!

2006-03-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

Walking (with her new toy)

2006-03-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

Isabelle loves her early birthday present - a "walking aid" toy!

2006-03-22T21:04:00.000-05:00

She loves to push or ride her car - anything active - always on the move!

2006-03-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

Isabelle loves to rock on her wooden rocking chair. She loves to be active!

2006-03-12T15:10:00.000-05:00

We have FINALLY had a happy and healthy weekend!

2006-03-05T13:17:00.000-05:00

Going to the mall! (to buy a bigger snowsuit - she grew out of the 24 month one - sigh)

2006-03-05T13:15:00.000-05:00

All smiles despite her teething troubles!

2006-02-25T13:07:00.000-05:00

She's happy again!

2006-02-25T13:03:00.000-05:00

She's finally getting over her 8th cold and acting happier again!

2006-02-01T14:37:00.000-05:00

Isabelle has had a rough week, but is bouncing back well- back into her old smiling self and starting to "creep" along furniture! (Walk along furniture using the furniture for support)

She was not herself most of last week - suffering, we thought, from a cold that had started the end of the previous week after two weeks of teething for her 3rd and 4th teeth, but on Friday she was diagnosed at Children's Hospital Emerg with pneumonia (three spots on her lungs in an x-ray).

Unfortunately, she had gotten so ill she stopped eating and still refuses to go back to nursing but neither will she drink much from a cup, so we're fighting against dehydration constantly.

Fortunately, her breathing and mood are much much better after five days on a puffer and antibiotics, so hopefully the nursing or feeding via bottle will come soon!

2006-01-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

What a smile!

Her 9 month appointment went well. She was still in the 100% percentile - close to 28lbs already!

2006-01-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

She still loves her ball!

2006-01-18T12:10:00.000-05:00

Isabelle loves to pull herself into a standing position now!

2006-01-09T11:30:00.000-05:00

She's leaving the living room crawling now - time to babyproof more rooms!

2006-01-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

She's crawling both forwards and backwards now!

2006-01-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

She's still suffering from the bug from Dec.21st, but in good spirits most of the day now. Her third tooth broke through yesterday and she starting to crawl forward (she's been going backward for a long time) and trying to stand up.

2006-01-01T09:13:00.000-05:00

This is her opening toys on Christmas morning.

2006-01-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

Isabelle loves her new toys even though she's still sick she is cheerful most of the day.

2005-12-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

We've had a tough week as you can tell from her eyes, despite her love of playing with cheerios they are very baggy. She got a cold and barely ate for four days this week - tough on everyone! She lost some of her belly and was even lethargic a couple of mornings... Fortunately, today she seems to be improving and is eating again.

2005-12-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

Isabelle still loves to climb furniture - this photo from last week shows how she was positioning her legs so she could sit back down easily. Today she has figured out how to kneel with both facing backwards and still back down safely - we'll try to capture it on photo soon.

2005-12-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

She's a very happy little girl!

2005-12-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

She's a strong girl - she makes everything into her toy!

2005-12-10T08:28:00.000-05:00

Her first snowsuit!

2005-12-07T12:41:00.000-05:00

Isabelle is still a happy girl even getting over her third cold.

2005-12-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

She's our Christmas darling!

2005-11-29T09:25:00.000-05:00

Isabelle is continuing to progress closer and closer to crawling...

2005-11-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

Look at her blue eyes!

2005-11-25T12:15:00.000-05:00

Peeking over furniture...

2005-11-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

She still smiles a lot!